Box toe blank and method of producing the same



Nov. 1, 1932. J. J. 'DALY 1,886,329

, BOX TOE BLANK AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME Filed Jan. 13. 192'? Lzventor John Jfigly I Patented Nov. 1, 1932- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOHN J. DALY, OF WEST NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR,

BY MESNE assreim CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS BOX TOE BLANK AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME Application filed January 13, 1927. Serial No. 160,824.

In the development of the box toe shoe, the box toe blank as the element which forms the box has been the subject of considerable thought and study, and blanks of various materials have been devised in the effort to obtain a blank which will satisfactorily meet the various requirements imposed in the manufacture and use of the shoe.

Such blanks may be conveniently separated into two distinct types, viz; the hard blank and the soft blank. The hard box toe blank is a blank cut from a sheet of fibrous material which has been impregnated with a thermoplastic binder. This blank is normally hard and stiff and is softened by heat after it is laid in the shoe to permit it to be conformed to the shape of the last. In processing such a blank, certain difiicultie's are experienced. Where it is attempted to stitch in the toe at the tip line, the needles become broken or gummed up by the resinous or bituminous impregnant of the blank. Where such a blank is simply laid loosely in the shoe without stitching, the heat produced by the high speed edge trimming knives of the toe trimmer tend to melt the thermoplastic impregnant which, when softened, coats the knives and dulls them, or if in the effort to avoid this objection, the blank be purposely made with but little thermo-plastic impregnant, the working of the foot in the shoe causes the leather toe tip to slide or creep on the non-sticky box toe blank, producing a vglrinkle which spoils the appearance of the s oe.

The soft toe blank has usually been an all leather blank or an all rubber or all cork blank or combinations thereof.

In one form of soft box toe blank which has found favor in the trade, the blank consists of a sheet of fabric coated with comminuted cork and linseed oil, the blank being baked to.

dry out the linseed oil and fix the particles of cork onto the fabric sheet. The difliculty with such a blank is that it cannot again be softened by heat, and consequently such a blank has to be lasted without the usual heat treatment which facilitates shaping the ordinary hardbox toe blank to the last.

My present invention provides a blank combining the'desirable features of both the hard lasted,

and soft box toe blanks of tl1e prior art without, however, being open to the objections which have characterized such blanks individually.

According to it, I spread uniformly over a fabric sheet as a base layer a mixture of comminuted cork or similar filling material with a thermo-plastic binder consisting of an unfused stiffening and binding medium in a finely divided state, as rosin blended with as phalt, gilsonite, or an oil-blown asphalt, or T mix the unfused binder with liquid rubber or latex and ground cork, and subject the blank or sheet to heat and pressure to fuse the stifiening mediumto the cork particles and to the fabric base layer. This results in a homogeneous mass which on cooling or drying is normally hard and stifi; but which may be softened by heat, when the blank is laid in the shoe, to permit the blank to be moulded to conform to the shape of the last. This heat treatment softens the binder sufiiciently to cause it to adhere tenaciously to the toe tip when the shoe is lasted and thus fix the position of the blank in the shoe. This avoids the necessity for stitching the blank at the tip line, as is usually done with the ordinary hard box toe blank.

In my box toe blank, therefore, I have combined the advantages of the soft cork blank, as regards flexibility and waterproofness, with those of the hard blank as regards capacity for holding its shape when lasted with freedom from creeping on the leather tip of the shoe and wrinkling at the tip line.

I obviate the necessity for treating with linseed oil and for baking, and I obtain a box toe blank which holds its shape well when is waterproof, and which may be definitely fixed within the shoe without stitching.

The method of practising my invention, together with the resultant blank produced by such method, is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of convenient apparatus for the practice of my method.

lig. 2 is a plan view of the resultant blank, an

Fig. 3 is an exaggerated section thereof on the line 33 of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 4 shows a modification. In practicing my invention, a sheet of fabric 1, as canvas, burlap, or fiannel, a mixture of finely ground cork or other filler 2, and powdered hard binder 3 of resinous or bituminous origin, such as powdered rosin blended with asphalt or gilsonite, and to make it flexible add a liquid rubber or latex, or I melt up a mixture of gum, resin, or asphalt or other bituminous material and mix therewith ground'cork, and then spread the mixture on a fabric or burlap sheet and allow I spread upon a it to set or harden to make a stiff sheet. This mixture may be applied to and combined with the fabric sheet in any suitable manner, as by means of the ordinary coating machine, in which the fabric is carried past one or more heated presser rollers 4, the mixture being deposited upon the fabric from any suitable container, as the hopper 5.

The individual blanks are died out of the sheet in the usual manner, and when laid in the shoes, are subjected to the usual heat treatment which softens them and permits them-to be moulded to shape.

In the form of my invention shown in Fig. 4, the base layer 1 is represented as having applied thereto a thin surface coating or film of rubber, latex or other adhesive substance which film softens under the same heat treatment which softens the blank generally for lasting and assists to fix the position of the blank in the shoe, as well as adds to the waterproof characteristic of the blank.

ide variations in mixture are permissible, depending upon the degree of stiffness desired in the blank, and I do not therefore attempt to give any particular formula. The proportion of binder to cork need only be such as to give the desired degree of stiffness.

Various other modifications in method and article may be resorted to withinthe limits of the appended claims. What I therefore claim and desireto secure by Letters Patent is: 1. As a new article of manufacture, a normally stiff and hard box toe blank softenable when heated, comprising a base layer, and a filling material mixed with a thermo-pla'stic binding'and rubber .and'fused to said base layer.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a normally stiff and hard box toe blank softenable when heated, comprising a fabric base layer and comminuted cork mixed with a thermo-' plastic binding'and rubber and fused to said base layer.

3.- The method of making box toe material, which consists in spreading upon a sheet of fabric comminuted cork mixed with a thermoplastic bindiHg and stiffening medium, and inheating 4. The method of making box: toe material said'mixture to fuse it to the sheet= which consists in impregnating a sheet of fabric by heat and pressure with comminuted cork mixed with a thermo-plastic binding and stiffening medium.

5. The method of making box toe material normally stiff butbecoming limp on application of heat which consists in spreading upon a sheet of fabric a mixture of comminuted thermoplastic gums with liquid rubber and in heating said mixture to fuse it to the sheet.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a normally stiff and hard box toe blank softenable when heated comprising a fabricbase layer and a mixture of comminuted cork .and a binder set on said sheet.

7. The method of making box toe material which consists in spreading upon a fabric sheet a mixture of comminuted cork and melted binder, allowing said mixture to set, and then sheeting out the box toe stocl In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

JOHN J. DALY. 

